Interesting description of a group of people called Cajans around Mobile Alabama written before 1940 –
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Scott Lochridge
Fascinating!
Mowas
No sir – not “Mowas”.
In 2002, under United States Federal Law we are called the “Choctaw Nation” under our treaties which specifically name our territory and immediate environment in a case where our Western brethren won a Non-Intercourse Act for some land rights.
The United States Federally Recognized our tribe under Public Law 93-638 called the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 when the United State Committee of Indian Affairs established a Commission which produced the American Indian Policy Review Commission Final Report on May 19, 1977.
We are located in Volume I of II on page 468 as the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washington Counties of Alabama.
The United States has taken the MOWA Choctaw Indian Reservation into a Federal Trust on behalf of the tribe.
The Supreme Court has held the decision of the United States Federal Court of Appeals in the 11th Circuit when is dismissed a case whereby the Chief of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians committed an act of discrimination against a black minority female while receiving federal funding from the United States Federal Department of Labor for lack of subject matter jurisdiction due to the fact that the Alabama Intertribal Council was protected by that inherent tribal sovereignty extended from those chiefs who encompassed the Alabama Intertribal Council as an “arm of the tribe”.
The Federal and State Courts have reaffirmed this decision and it is a precedent used by tribes like the neighboring Poarch Creek who are considered a federally recognized tribe who were acknowledged under one of the federal agencies that mistaking my thought is was given statutory power to do so for the last 40 or so years.
Congress clarified this was not true in H.R. 3764 but may yet grandfather those tribes as federally recognized under 25 C.F.R. 83.1 et seq.
The Choctaws of South Alabama have had their sovereign immunity protected by the United States Federal Court of Appeals in the 11th Circuit and confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
This confirmation of the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity was also federally recognized by the United States Federal Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General’s Office of Auditor.
The United States Federal Magistrate and Federal Judge Callie Grenada made scorching and insulting remarks recently over simple certified Electronic Bingo Machines which were stolen from the tribe and Framon Weaver of all people – the man whose actions were protected by the Doctrine of Sovereign Immunity by the Supreme Court and who was also individually recognized by the Smithsonian Institute as one of the Great Chiefs of all Native American Indian Tribes.
It takes a special kind of Federal Judge to rule 100% contrary to the findings of the its own 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court over the exact same man over the exact same reason – the Doctrine of Sovereign Inmunity.
Framon Weaver from the tribe denied by the BIA from its acknowledgment processes even after the United States had take the entire Indian Reservation into Federal Trust makes the Office of Federal Acknowledgment Researchers very special and talented people also.
They denied Federal Acknowledgment to a tribe already Federally Recognized under NAHASDA and after the Secretary of Interior issued the MOWA Choctaw Indian Police a Federal Bureau of Investigations ORI number.
Darby Weaver
This is very interesting read. Thanks Darby.
John Oliver Everette was the grandson of John Reid Young Everett who was the son of John Reid Jr. who himself won the election as the Mayor of Mobile in 1870 with a majority of 170 votes.
See Reid v. Moulton in the Alabama Supreme Court which he won but due to the time taken to win he never held office.
His father John Reid (Reed) was also the Mayor of Mobile Alabama and held two terms.
Along with Alphonse Lucas who was a Mayor of Mobile Alabama and a business associate/partner of John Reid (Reed).
John Reid Young Everette is a descendant of Rose Reed and Daniel Reed.
His ancestors descend from Wall v. Williams by way of Alexander Brashears from the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek on September 27th 1830.
John Everette was the Mayor of Mobile in 1826-1829 and again in the 1830’s followed by John Reid.
Both were kin and ancestors to John Oliver Everette who was a tall man of about 6 foot 6 inches in height.
A military veteran and a Mobile County Veteran who worked on the roads.
For anyone to imply he was anything except Choctaw or Indian or Cherokee was not to know “Big John”.
He was my dad’s best friend along with a couple of other men and they were in frequent company together at the American Legion in Citronelle, Alabama and their own homes.
It seems odd that a man of John Oliver Everette’s background and his family holding the office of the Mayor of Mobile, not once but actually several times during what was supposed to be leading up to the Civil War… was an Indian, but such was Mobile in those times.
The Choctaw and Cherokee of Mobile were more powerful in Mobile and had the Right of the Soil, Possession, Use, Occupancy of the Land since time immemorial.
It was in 1763 at the close of the what was called the French and Indian War, that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs named Mr. Stuart as per Worchester v. Georgia in 1832 made the proclamation of 1763 in favor of the Cherokee Indians and the Choctaw Indians both of the Mobile area.
Mark Acosta Lisa Acosta
Wow interesting
There used to be a group of people that came from up above Mobile called Creola…they were all distinctive in that they had dark skin and black features with beautiful very light green eyes. As a child I was fascinated if our paths crossed.
Black irish
No sir.
Our people owned the bulk of the land and the timber companies sought to reclassify us to take our Indian lands.
First they wrote themselves what look like deeds for our timber and turpentine.
We couldn’t read.
Then those same people stole our lands in violation of Federal Law.
The problem they know is that you can’t steal Indian lands from an Indian tribe.
We are protected by sovereign immunity and so are those lands.
Alabama has a problem.
Carl Hadley
Very interesting
They’re people too. Just saying.
I’m reading a book by Fannie Flagg & the setting is in Baldwin county & she talks about them in her book.
Which book?
Would love to see more.
A Redbird Christmas
Baldwin County was originally located West of the Mobile River and included Mount Vernon, Alabama.
When Weatherford v. Weatherford in 1848 went to the Chancery Court it was in the context of what is today Mobile County.
Alexander McGillivray owned land along with Panton Leslie Forbes in Mobile County Alabama.
James Innerarity of Panton Leslie was also the first President of Mobile, Alabama.
Who knew?
William Weatherford is the ancestor of most if not all of the entire Mobile and Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians.
Andrew Jackson described him of being from the Hickory Tribe in his report to the Secretary of War “Armstrong” in the 1828 report laid before the Congress of the United States and which is listed in the American State Papers.
William Weatherford’s pension was awarded to Nancy Fisher in 1848 also noted in the American State Papers – Colonel William Weatherford, that is, who had apparently served in the Mexican Campaign and the Sac and Fox Campaign.
Sanktown is above the Red Fox Road in the Mobile and Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians Reservation today.
The military records of William Weatherford also report he was Indian.
I’ve read that William Weatherford died by more than one story in 1825, however, the United States Federal Government seems to have another story.
It coordinates with the story told by the Weavers and Reeds and other family members who applied for the Guion Miller Roll of Cherokee Indians.
They were confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States as Cherokee in 1899. This case still holds.
It was John Ross and Richard Taylor (Red Fox) from the Cherokee Nation who vouched for Dav Weaver still residing in the East and whose presence was known at the last Cherokee Council in 1838 prior to their own departure for the West.
This is a matter of Court Record in the Indian Citizenship Court of the period.
Baldwin County was formerly between Mobile and Washington County – before 1901 and after William Weatherford dies after serving as Colonel in Mexican Campaign – he was married to Nancy Fisher.
Also Alexander McGillivray also is mentioned in the American State Papers with regard to a Spanish Land Grant near Mount Vernon, Alabama and the Washington Barracks aka Mount Vernon Barracks and Arsenal – known as Searcy Hospital today.
So when the lady wrote of the Cajuns in Baldwin County – she would be correct, since apparently at some point County moved its operations to the present Baldwin County of today’s Alabama.
Funny how that all worked out.
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
Alexander McGillivray, my grandfather. Alexander El Cat Brashears another grandfather.
We are all mixed. I believe.
Great article!
Enjoyed reading this. A lot of their customs were what I was taught and observed as a child growing up in the 50’s and 60’s.
Well worth reading.
My father sold a lot of used cars to people in Creola and surrounding areas. I got to go with him a few times as a child. I remember children peeping from behind trees, etc.
One of the Most Fascinating Articles of Pioneer Days of Rural Southern Living. I know of a Creole “Cajan Family” in South Alabama ( Bon Secure, Al.) that is of the Most Hostpitial People I know. Devout Catholics, Thrifty off the Land and Sea and would Give of anything if Needed or Asked. There Last Name is Collins and if your from Bon Secure or West Foley you know of them.
Mon Louis island was also where the Collins that I know resided.
Very interesting
Phil, do you know about this page? I’m bout ta read up on dem’ Injun cajuns of bama!
As long as they pull for Bama they are welcome
Roooooolllll TIDE !!
Reading this reminds me of another group of people, Melungeons.
Melungeouns aren’t that hospitable…lol j/k
http://alabamapioneers.com/sand-mountain-melungeon-families/
My people!
Great article ! My wife’s grandmother kept a swept yard and my dad used to always say,” Well, come go home with us !” at the end of a visit.
i remember hearing people saying that,also remember then saying “ya’ll come” meaning ya’ll come see us
[…] Interesting description of a group of people called Cajans around Mobile Alabama written before 1940 […]
Michael H. Johnson
I’m one of them people. They are now called mowa band of Choctaw Indians. Mt Vernon al.
Mr. Weaver,
They are my people also, did you know of George and Alma Byrd? (In fact I believe that George is one of the men pictured in this article holding the baby.) They were my grandparents. My grandfather died in the 50’s. My grandmother and 4 children (my dad) moved away. Would love to know more about my heritage.
Another interesting book is House at the End of the Road.
My great grandmother was a Byrd from Deer Park, wish I could find out more on herr history…..dont know who her mother was etc….would love to know….alot of records were no kept
There was a huge Byrd family in North Jackson County, MS. My grandmother’s father was from there. Still quite a few Byrd’s there. You might was to go to Ancestry and check some of the families. It’s nots that far to Deer Park from there.
Washington county public library has a genealogy room with lots of records and data that has been collected. There may be something there.
Thank you! Through this page I’m able to keep up with my homes history as I’ve moved away to the West, I’ll come back someday when Alabama has grown a little more 🙂
Very interesting read
What a fascinating find! Unique. This is what I like to see on this website.
great read, love the history of our state.
My Daddy, the Rev. James Abraham Zellner, served the Methodist church in Calcedeaver, Alabama, out from Mt. Vernon, in the late 1960s. As a young man I came to know some of the leaders of “Our Community,” as the area was known. It was not considered polite to refer to the community or the folks there as “Cajun.” That was thought to be the name outsiders used. Calvin Byrd was a young leader as was Levi Hopkins. I love getting this information about the folks in North Mobile County and would like to hear more. I understand that the great Native American Apache Chief, Geronimo, lived in Calcedeaver for a while. When he was captured he said, “In forty days they took me from there to Fort Pickens (Pensacola), Florida. Here they put me to sawing up large logs. There were several other Apache warriors with me, and all of us had to work every day. For nearly two years we were kept at hard labor in this place and we did not see our families until May, 1887. This treatment was in direct violation of our treaty made at Skeleton Canyon.
After this we were sent with our families to Vermont, Alabama, [ I think he meant Mount Vernon, Alabama] where we stayed five years and worked for the Government. We had no property, and I looked in vain for General Miles to send me to that land of which he had spoken; I longed in vain for the implements, house, and stock that General Miles had promised me.
I was raised up in Aldersgate and calcedeaver..Levi Hopkins was my daddy’s brother..homecoming was just a week or so ago and zellner was mentioned as you stated..
We’ve now covered the gaps presented by the petition and the misinformation presented by the book “They Say The Wind Is Red” which patently says we moved here from somewhere else.
We didn’t.
We have that covered in depth now by quite a few sources.
Federal Sources are preferred but knowing there are people who remember who we are is very reassuring
It took a while to uncover everything and at a great expense.
It’s done now. It’s easier now that we know what to look for.
Thanks
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
Very interesting
Fabulous article
what strange people !
I found it very interesting how many of the customs they used were also passed down in my family. I remember my mother’s mother had many of these practices. Like grown ups eat first and the kids got what was left, if there was anything! Older folks saying, “Come go home with us” when taking their leave. Many others that I thought were “old ways”. Reading this article brought some to mind. I thought all the nationalities that were mentioned as possibly having been part of this group’s ethnicity seemed to leave very little that they “weren’t”. LOL. Sounds like most of us, a little bit of this and a little bit of that! That’s what makes America great.
Yep, I would venture to say that none of us are 100% Caucasian. Too many immigrants for that to happen. Just saying …
Swear fore God Cuz.
Geoffrey Walker my grandmother was correct.
Was any Lewis’s in this group of people?
Possibly – In the applications my great grandparents filled out and their neighbors some lived on Cole Creek and others on Lewis Creek.
…….. VERY INTERESTING. …..READING THIS…..I LIKE TO READ ABOUT DIFFERENT CULTURES. ….RACES…ORGINS….ETC…
These “Cajuns ” are actually Native Americans! A good book to read is “they say the wind Is red: Alabama Choctaw lost in their own land”
Loved this article! As a young girl in Northern Alabama, didn’t know they existed. I’m now 76, and I do now know they existed!
We have a very rich history and I am currently gathering all of the information to present the series of books detailing as much of our history as possible starting from the 1540’s to present and all the history in between.
1. No we did not originate from pirates.
2. Still have not found the Russians – not yet.
1. Yes we are of Native American Descent – totally provable.
2. Our petition to the BIA was less than perfect however, we used the money from the ANA Grant for research to hire the professionals recommended to us by the BIA – The BIA then questioned their credentials from any favorable vantage point. Note: I’m correcting this as we speak.
3. We are going on the offensive to take back our heritage, our rich history, our culture, and most of all all of our very extensive land rights.
We have been lied to, cheated, murdered, defrauded and these United States have worked since the beginning of this nation of the United States both for us and against us and ultimately wiping our memory from the face of the earth.
They failed.
We are not quite “erased” – extinction by reclassification – has hereby been nullified.
Darby Weaver
Amazing article. These customs were significantly parallel to my mother’s experiences when she was growing up during the same time, except her healthcare was more modern and professional. The foods, neighborly comments, and design of the house are very familiar to me, even though I was raised on the West Coast. My mother grew up in central Louisiana, and had Irish ancestry. Loved this!
I am so very excited to read this document and the comments! I recently also read “They Say the Wind is Red” in an effort to learn more about my newfound heritage. Being African-American, I am also one of those who have always heard that we had Native American in the family, but didn’t put much stock into it despite seeing a photo of my father’s paternal grandmother Janie Young which was rumored to have been drawn/painted on a reservation where she worked as a cook. Her maternal grandmother Mary Love (maiden name unknown) was said to have been nearly all Native American. All were from Choctaw County, AL and Lauderdale County, MS and the surrounding areas.
Not until I had myself and several family members, including my 85 year old uncle, DNA-tested did I learn that we did indeed have Native American DNA and are descended from Nathaniel Smith and Louisa Brashears, most likely from their son Manson Marion Smith. I also have cousins with Byrds and Wrights in their ancestry and many ties to Mobile, Washington and Lamar Counties. I believe that my 3x great-grandmother Mary Love may be the tie to the MOWA, but am on a continuous search for more information to confirm this.
Would love to know about the African interaction with this group, whether through slavery or otherwise, and essentially, find out how I came to be. 🙂
Thank you!
Doing a lot of research and correcting Jaqueline Matte’s and her cousins findings and the Africanization insinuated by Cedric Sunray, here is what I’ve found:
1. The Choctaw of Mobile County have almost exclusively ostracized any person in the family if they mixed with African Americans. To the point of appearing quite racist in the process.
This was and in the oldest people among our tribe still the prevailing sentiment.
Not pretty or politically correct but true.
After the 1970’s and Civil Rights have things changed.
In the old geneology the only slaves referred to are either Indian as in the case of Rose Reed or are blue-eyed and fair skinned in the case of Marguerite.
So we have two cases of slaves being married into the family. In either case none were African – true enough.
Those are the only 2 cases I recall after examine the records in depth.
However there were miscengeniation cases in the 1920’s but the hair was proven black and straight and the cases either won or overturned.
They Indian ancestry was played down.
The African-American racial mix starts to occur in the 20th century and really only in the last 30-40 years or so.
Anyone else who mixed races normally moved from the community.
It’s rough and not very nice but there are cases in point to this day of exactly this example.
Now the sentiments are quite different – mostly because the younger generation have been taught that their brown skin is really African and not Native American.
Washington County has a slightly different history but to this day the Indians have a distinct community and vigorously maintain it with regard to the “black community”.
A recent example just happened at Reed’s Chappel over kids wanting to play ball for example.
The people of the Indian Community in Washington County Alabama maintain the laws usages and customs of the Choctaw Nation.
This community was typical of most remote Alabama communities in that day. Their ancestors were pioneers that migrated from the Virginia and Carolina areas, through Georgia to settle in Alabama and Mississippi. Because of their remote location and isolation, many stilled lived as their pioneer ancestors did. These are my people and I have researched their genealogy back to their Norman ancestors that helped William conquer England in the 11th century. Some even back to the Holy Roman empire. We are descended from Indian chiefs as well as British, Irish, German and Scottish nobility. Family tree on Ancestry: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/48217707/family
Hello cousin!
trying to see how close we are.
https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/107444923/family?cfpid=370059048391
I’m very proud to call myself a Cajun,and I was raised to respect and lover others not by what they look like… because as you can see you can look like anything, even tho my children are mixed I’ve shared the stories that my grandmother told me…you can call us Cajun or Indian but at the end of the day we call ourselves a proud people….
Oh yes the French Arcadians.
Ed Henry
I can remember these folks being called Cajuns in the 60’s. Many if not most now identify themselves as the Mowa band of the Choctaw tribe (and are recognised as such by the State of Alabama.)
And BTW many of the cultural traits and customs mentioned here are certianly applicable to not just the culture of the Mowa of Washington and Mobile counties but to the Larger Southern culture as well. I was raised in the mountains of NE Alabama and much of this sounds very familiar. For example when I was a child it was
Always the custom for adult men to be served first at a meal. The conversation about “come and go home with me” sounds familiar to me even today!
I grew up in Mobile, we always served men first, then children, then we would eat
I wondered if they were the MOWA Choctaw.
I saw the name Taylor and thought of Long Hair Taylor.
Knew his brother several years ago.
Ned Jenkins
Interesting history of Alabama.
Mt. VERNON Cajuns.
Adam Callan
Friends of yours?
I remember reading about these folks in “Stars Fell On Alabama.” I wasn’t sure if the stories in the book were real or made up. This article is a great read!
Very accurate book. The names of the people he met were Citronelle and Mount Vernon. The doctor was from Citronelle.
More than likely the name Cajan was adopted so they could continue to settle. Many natives similarly hid in the mountains in the NE part of the state. Etowah Co. is full of native blood.
The name ” Cajan ” was used by old Joe Wheeler and his crooked band of cronies. You won’t ever hear of a MOWA Choctaw referring to himself as a Cajun . It was meant as a derogatory term . The MOWA have always been in the woods of Washington County. Staying hidden away from prying eyes was in their best interest
Jim Granade was quoted as saying that Senator McRae coined the term Cajun in 1885.
Jim Granade was a lawyer whose name can be found conveying or selling Choctaw Indian Land and Timber rights to other parties.
The issue is that none of the Deeds down in Mobile or Washington or even Baldwin County (the name for part of Mobile County previously) or others could be sold from Indians with the consent of the United States Government.
Therefore the people who benefitted from making deeds from people who could barely write or read was like taking candy from a baby.
The Choctaw Indians owed no taxes under the 14th Amendment.
The people who stole the land be writing all those deeds said the Choctaw Indians were “Cajuns” and tried to perpetuate tbe mythology.
Darby Weaver
Tribal Leader
My folks Etowah County and St. Clair County. Pic of my great grandfather appears white or mixed with light eyes. Said they were Sajan. It was said in a whisper. His wife appeared black. 1870 census said she was mulatto. I have heard that he was from the mountains, but also that some were from Mobile. This is so very interesting.
Good to see some old pictures of my Kin !!!!!!
Fascinating article. I thought that Creola was a town named for Creole folks who drifted along the coast from New Orleans but thought the same of those who settled West of Mobile around Bayou La Batre. The Coast is just an endless marvel of stories.
Sorry Creola is where Orleans and Louisiana started.
The people did not come from New Orleans.
The Battle of New Orleans if you call it that would have had to happen right on Highway 43 in Alabama and not in the present day New Orleans.
Besides how would Jackson have marched troops from present day Pensacola to Present day Mobile and the Present day New Orleans?
He did not have the benefit of a road and if anyone has ever been from Mobile to Pensacola you might have noticed the Mobile, Middle, and Tensaw Rivers that impassable.
The same thing is infinitely worse from Mobile to New Orleans today.
Also New Oreans had to have a 14-15 foot levy built at some point else it is completely under water.
Historians forgot that part of the story.
Pensacola was Mount Vernon.
Mobile was the River and maybe a small town.
St. Marks de Augustine aka Augustus was at Chastang.
Louisiana or Isle de Orleans was at Alabama Power and the DuPont Power Company. There is even a historical marker to help people find it.
The Ellicott Stone is also conveniently located not far away.
Sorry – I’ve researched this pretty well and I have books that a older that those Alabama Historians and their own hearsay version of Alabama History.
Darby Weaver
Tribal Leader
Very interesting read of Alabama’s history!
Great read!
love Alabama pioneers..i had never heard of this story
I learn so much from these articles. TY!
When I was raised up in lower Alabama (Cajun country) We used to cook pigs in the sand and stuffed them with figs, walnuts and blue berries. When you would eat that great food and drink stump juice (moon shine) we would be howling at the moon all night long.
Just wondering if these people do live in Al, know they do in LA.
My great grandmother was a Byrd wonder if we are related ? Hmmm
Great article & the comments are just as interesting.
My mother was MOWA, my father is white. Two cultures, worlds apart. This article is interesting, but should come with a disclaimer that Cajan is no longer an acceptable term and is considered a racial slur by MOWA people.
Why? The term Cajun is a slang for Acadian, which when pronounced in a heavily French accent sounds like A-Cajun. Those travelers from Acadia in French Canada settled in several areas, some in the Carolinas, some in Mobile, some in Mississippi and finally Louisiana. They also mixed with the locals, and Cajan seems very eerily close to Cajun. Simply mispronounced by non-French folks. No racial slur, but I’ll reserve this group.
Our tribe is Choctaw and we are the Choctaw Nation and we still claim our entire land by the Rights of Possession, Usage, and Occupancy.
We have never been defeated in a just war.
We have never abrogated our rights.
And we have never ever received any benefit of any Treaty and have been the victims of crimes of fraud which have been repeatedly proven in the Supreme Court of the United States and by Congressional Committees throughout the entire Course of US History.
We are a Sovereign People as the Choctaw Nation.
We are listed on the rolls of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as well after the 1909 Supreme Court Decision in our favor.
We are the Choctaw Nation.
The de-humiliation of our tribe has been inflicted upon us to steal our lands – which are the old Natchez Territory.
We are in every major Treaty of the United States and the US Constitution preserves and maintains those Treaties as the highest law in the land.
They apply to us even so long as one of us still breathes.
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
The reason is that law makers, timber companies and those kin to certain judges used the term to steal our land by writing deeds they claimed we signed.
Hmmm…
Choctaw Indians are a protected class by the U.S. Federal Government.
Cajuns are not.
Dumb ole country boys who own timber companies and stole our lands from under our feet know the difference.
The use of cajan has been a way to delegitimize the heritage of our tribe.
Interesting. The description of these people sounds very similar to the Melugeon of Appalachia.
Janie Holmes
Good read, thanks for sharing it.
My husband is from Etowah Co. Born in 1934 He was told the court house had burned down and records previous to 1945 were destroyed and anyone born previous were Indian blood. He thinks he has Creek or Cherokee blood and Irish.
DNA test is on sale at Ancestry……….
The Choctaws of Mobile and Washington Counties have been Federally Recognized by he United States of America since The first Choctaw Treaty of 1820 which entitled them to ownership of parts of the State of Arkansas and the State of Oklahoma.
The Choctaws of Mobile and Washington County are also the descendants of those who signed the Treaty of 1830 and who were agreed by the United States to be Sovereign in Alabama and Mississippi.
The Choctaw of Mobile and Washjngton County hold legal claim to being defrauded land by the wealthiest and most prosperous company in the United States who has worked feverishly to defraud the Choctaw Nation of Red People it’s rights and still to this day holds our beloved Hickory Grounds in Axis, Bucks, and Chastang Alabama.
The Choctaws of Mobile and Washinton County were found by the Supreme Court to be the victims of FRAUD over the terms in the Treaty of 1830 in 1881 by the Supreme Court of the United States and were awarded damages which were paid to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. See Choctaw Nation v United States. The US Federal Court of claims paid the Five Civilied Tribes of Oklahoma and none of the remaining Eastern Tribes saw a penny of the settlement on their behalf.
The US then formed the Commission of the Five Civilized Tribes aka the Dawes Commission which would be proven in 1944-45 to have DE-FRAUDED the Choctaw of Mobile and Washington Counties AGAIN.
The Alabama Louisiana and Mississippi Commission of Choctaw Indians won in the Supreme Court and in 1945 the Mississippi Band of Choctaw became Federally Recognized as a result of the FRAUD against the Choctaw from Mobile and Washington Counties of Alabama which was formerly called Mississippi.
That all happened in the United States Supreme Court.
The Choctaw Indians were termed Cajuns and Cajans in an attempt to tax them
Fraudulently and take their homelands one more time.
Mobile and Washington Counties are presently illegally taxing and have sold or otherwise made provision for others to sell the lands of the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Wasington Counties against the law of the Constitution of the United States forbidding any such land land sales. This is an Act of Congress referred to as the Non-Intercourse Act.
The Choctaw Indians of Alabama were Federally Recognized by Congress in 1978 and it authorized and mandated that the BIA immediately recognize the Choctaw Indians of Mobile and Washinton Counties along with many other tribes. The BIA recognized the Poarch Creek.
William Weatherford called an Indian was actually a veteran of the United States of America and his widow was an Indian named Nancy Durant Fisher – mother of Cecille Weathers who married the Cherokee Chieftan Davy Crockett Weaver aka Davy Crockett. They were married in Tennessee in 1816. Tennessee was still in the Mississippi Territory.
William Weatherford served in what was termed the Mexican War and the United States Congress Federally Recognized his service and his marriage to Nancy Weatherford as noted a few times in the American State Papers.
Sorry the Poarch Creek were Federally Recognized over claiming a relationship to Billy Weatherford who got his name from Daniel Reed aka Daniel Red Byrd.
The name of Weatherford is a historically told take right alongside a few others and taken for truth.
Reference the American State Papers.
Thanks Alabama!. Keep up the good works!. I enjoy keep up with you!
Thanks – The Ft. Mims Re-enactment is on the 27th and 28th.
I think you mean Creek Band.
No it’s the Choctaw Nation who are mentioned.
Calcedeaver is the Indian School is Alabama in Mobile County.
Reed’s Chapel Elementary School was the last Indian School is Washington County.
The Choctaws of Mobile and Washington County are all descended from Colonel William Wearherford – the Creek Warrior who married the daughter of Nancy Fisher – the Choctaw/Cherokee/Natchez woman who was married to Dave (Crockkett) Weaver of the Chapman Cherokee Roll of 1835.
Colonel Weatherford resided in what was later called Baldwin County – now Mobile County Alabama where Natchez was located previous to 1814 after it was renamed to the Town of Mobile.
Colonel Weatherford served as a private soldier from Illinois – even though it seems he was really from Baldwin/Mobile County.
He fought against Chief Davis who was called Blackhawk of the Sak and the Fox and his military records prove the fact.
Our Baldwin/Mobile/Illinois/Mexican War William Weatherford survived quite a lot longer that the Poarch Creek version.
Can you verify for me if William Weatherford married Nancy Fisher or was her daughter that he married? Also, did Nancy Fisher marry a Phillip Chastang from Baldwin County? I am supposedly a descendant of William Weatherford and trying to work on my ancestry
Thank you!
interesting read
Very interesting good history.
At first, I thought that this involved the French who fled to here after the French Revolution (see the John Wayne movie The Fighting Kentuckian which is set around Demopolis).
Actually – The Arcadians survived the attacks by one Moses Hazen at Quebec when there was a Quebec on the Gulf Coast. He was awarded some sort of pension or payment from the United States Senate in 1824 for his actions.
So basically the French/Spanish that were there were attacked by Moses Hazen and had to remove to about the 31st degree north latitude – some may have moved further North – William Weatherford later removed the Potawatomies, Ottawa, and Chippewa around 1835-1836 and those people also had a lot of French names.
The people in Mobile who were Europeans of French Descent ended up being referred to as a caste as Creoles – We see the first use of the name Creola or Creole in the Baptisms performed by Father Davion in La Vente in the early 1700’s, starting around 1702 or else 1704.
These French came from the La Rochelle by the looks of it and their surnames are pretty much the same as those from La Rochelle.
The rest of the math and time tables add up.
Nicolas La Salle also lived at the time of Father Davion.
Hope that helps.
The French who came later and established the Colony of the Olive and Vine are what we refer to as Demopolis but there is also reason to believe they were sent to Texas as well. Old Newspapers is where I gleaned this piece of information referring to the Texas diversion of the group or else another group.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing
Such an interesting article!!!
It is a read to be remembered.
There is a reason why Geronimo said he was being kept at Vermont.
It turns out that all of the original 13 Colonies and even Tennessee and Kenucky even the State of Franklin will be found in the homelands of the Choctaw Indians you have called Cajans/Cajuns.
York is here – just north of Washington County.
Memphis is a ghost town and Nashville is in the vicinity of Jackson Alamama.
Which is in the vicinity of Washington City.
Alabama Power and the DuPont Chemical Plant are at Orleans/Louisiana.
Old Pensacola and Florida is where Mount Vernon, Alabama aka Vermont is today.
You will find the map of the Brandywine just South of Mount Vernon Alabama.
So there we find DuPont’s Delaware and Delaware Indians.
We find Pennsylvania aka Transylvania below that and of course Bucks is nearby.
The “Road Island” sits cross from Mount Vernon Alabama what was called Vermont.
Geronimo was moved to the Mount Vernon Barracks what was referred to as Fort Pickens but it was Pensacola then.
The man who founded Foley Alabama did so in 1901.
DuPont claims founding Pensacola about 1898 to 1992 of so in the present day state of Florida.
You will find the Ball family in Clarke County Alabama
The Mississippi Choctaw try to change the word of Halbert and Ball and refer to what is in Alabama as if it were in Mississippi.
The list goes on.
South Carolina – take a look at Fort Caroline in Jacksonville Florida.
Make no mistake how far it is from San Marcos de St. Augustine.
Now take a look at St. Marks and Augustine in Alabama just down from Wakefield.
This is Alabama
Why the confusion?
Why are these facts hidden?
Why?
Williamsburg was down by the Spanish Fort down in the Eastern Shore.
Let’s not mistake it for Virginia.
Montgomery was Philadelphia before it was Philadelphia and it was in the vicinity of Pennsylvania before it was Satsuma and Creola.
The Choctaws are Rising!
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader.
Gálvez had an officer named Geronimo when he took Mount Vernon when it was called Pensacola after he left from Louisiana where he was Governor in 1781 during the American Revolution all along what is today the Mobile River which was called El Rio de Los Santos which is no surprise that the Texians thought that El Rio de Los Santos was close to Golid not far from the Alamo of Texas.
Meanwhile the pictoral depiction of the hand over of Mobile/Pensacola/Mount Vernon Alabama etc was handed over by Zenon Orso.
Wow!
So the Choctaws of Alabama who are variously referred to as Shawnees and then as Seminoles and as Creeks and Cherokees and then Apachees.
The Apalachees were baptized right here in Mount Vernon Alabama or thereabouts.
TuscaHouma was just Southwest of Mount Vernon Alabama.
The similarities never cease to amaze and distort.
Would LOVE to read more of your information…….where can I find it? Do you have a book, website, etc that I could glean more info from? We have found Native American heritage in our line, but we do know that because of the treaty and The Trail of Tears, that a lot of the names were changed and also families wiped out. We are descended from Brave Hunter and Beaver Toter, but have had a hard time finding out much about her.
My website is http://www.alabamapioneers.com and you can check out all my books at amazon.com/author/donnarcausey
Thanks, Donna
Most of our people have “nick names” but not many have names like you describe.
Mostly the pet names are derived from names given in childhood and can be diverse.
Example one person is called by his uncles name. That’s his “middle name” now. His uncle wasn’t there during his birth but he said that was his name and so it has been ever since.
Others just get names long the way and some people may call a person one thing, or a person’s actual name or maybe something else. I’ve never noted a pattern.
One of our chiefs was called “Longhair” because he wore his hair long for example. Wilford “Longhair” Taylor.
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
San Marcos – St Marks.
Panton Leslie Forbes – James and John Innerarity.
Pierre and Charles Juzan – Chestang Alabama.
Aka the Chippewa.
Ringing any bells yet?
Is this sinister and evil yet?
It’s true – it’s fact – and stands legally.
Juhan and DuPont and Ball/Bell etc go back a ways.
Interesting how we mis-spell a name in a time when people could not spell in a standardized manner.
Why is American History all on the Tombigbee and Mobile and Alabama Rivers?
Maybe I should say Rives?
Maybe I should show you the map of the Creek War and just turn the map sideways like the University of South Alabama author and archeologists have done.
Historical Societies are re-writing the history frantically.
I’m re-writing this story from Laura Frances Murphy’s paper in 1935 after her 6 year study with the Choctaw Nation of Alabama in Mobile County from 1929 – 1935.
The truth is she relied on the term Cajan when the local Choctaws were known to be Choctaws and not Cajans which the Honorable Jim Granade and Frank Boykin worked out as a means of depriving the Choctaw Indians of their considerable land rights which were otherwise protected by the 25 U.S.C. 177 (See 25 U.S.C. 1779) which Granade is reputed in other sources as attributing to a Senator McRae’s statement and reference to the Alabama Choctaw in 1885 – at which time the Choctaw Nation v. United States decision in 1883 had been won in favor of the Alabama Choctaw and would be won again in 1886 in favor of the Alabama Choctaw under the leadership of John Johnston (John Johnston Road in McIntosh, Washington County, Alabama) in the Supreme Court of the United States of America (See Choctaw Nation v. United States 119 U.S. 1 (1886)).
Now…
Frank Boykin knew the truth of the Choctaw Indians – at least one Boykin married one Byrd and of course he got his start with his business partner John Reid/Reed Everett who was descended from the lines of Alexander Brashears (A Choctaw Captain or Chief who signed the Treaty of 1830).
The Choctaw Indians known as the Bay Indians under John Johnston left the treaty grounds and moved south.
Jesse Brashears is another famous Alabama Supreme Court Case as it Wall v. Williams 8 Ala. 48 (1844) and Wall v. Williams 11 Ala. 8126, 839-840 (1847) involving Delilah Wall…
The list goes on…
Weatherford v. Weatherford is another case.
The heirs of Alexander McGillivray and Sophia McGillivray Durant are of Choctaw descent – the actual term may better be called Natchez or Alabama Indians since the Town of Natchez was renamed to the Town of Mobile in 1814 (apparently not the City of Mobile since the City of Mobile sued the Town of Mobile and the City of New Orleans both in 1818 for the river banks…).
The land records are many and complete to round off the land records and we visited another cemetery to complete this side of the family and another community.
We also now have the original petition to the BIA and yes it is incomplete and flawed.
However, they did give limited credit to the Laurandine/Brue/Lofton family lines and they also gave very very little credibility to the Alexander Brashears family lines – somehow ignoring the family connections which began even before the treaty of 1830…
Those 40 of 3960 MOWA Choctaw Indians reported by the BIA is patently wrong. It seems they took 40 descendants from about an 1880-1900 period and offered credit solely for those people and then compared it to the present tribal membership.
That’s terrible but that is what the report reads.
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Powhatan indians and saponi. In alabama were all over alabama in 1700s and we are still here inspite of many being hanged under the racial identity black from 1880 and the early 1900s
So glad to have found this site. Just happened upon it. I am researching for Turnbull, Cheely/Cheeley, Barnett, Foran, Guin, Dillard, Vaughan/Vaughn, Ferguson, etc. Three generations of the family of my grandfather, Charles Benton Cheely, share-cropped in the Choctaw Nation IT, Oklahoma. His grandfather was, Robert Cheely and he was married to ‘a’ Sarah Turnbull. Charles was born in Pottawatomie Co.,IT 1895. He was married to Grace (Gracie Foran) Cheely, reportedly born in Milam, TX, but another record shows her born in Shady Point, LeFlore Co., OK (Choctaw Country).
The Turnbull family is very large and spread all over the world, but I do believe mine are connected to the Mississippi Choctaw as reported in papers in my possession. From this site, if I’m understanding it right is now the MOWA Choctaw and spread all over the southeastern area of the USA? So far, I have not made the connect…but do still think it is there. If anyone out there knows the actual Turnbull lineage from John on forward, I’d love to hear from you.
Ok – Latest Update:
1. The Bird Family is now confirmed to be one of the Six-Towns Choctaw – OKLA HANNALI.
2. The Family Lines from several of the Choctaw Kings or Mingos, Chiefs, Warriors, and Headmen, Captains, etc. as well as interpreters who may be Choctaw in some instances as well have been identified.
3. The associated documentation from another Federal Source also indicates that the same neighborhoods are identified along with the present day Choctaw and Chickasaw of Alabama in Mobile and Washington Counties.
4. The ancient documentation of Mauvila is synonomous with the present day site of the same Mauvila, Kushla, and ReedBreak Creek (Kunshak), as well as Cole’s Creek (COLD CREEK), etc.
5. Edmund Pendelton Gaines received his land at or near Mt. Vernon, Alabama from Alfred Rivers. Joel Rivers and Edy Weaver-Rivers have many descendants among the Choctaw.
6. The Choctaw of Alabama also produced the first Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians – Wesley Johnston who was the son of Isaac Johnston (note Johnson and Johnston are often mis-spelled). Isaas Johnston was referred to as a “Cajan Indian” in a write-up of our communities bordering the Mississippi and Alabama State Line.
The information we have describing our community in Treaties, 3rd Party Documentation, Federal Documentation, and family genealogy is now irrefutable as to the Origins of the Choctaw Nation of Indians, which includes the Mobile and Washington County Band of Choctaw Indians.
The community is Indian. The BIA/BAR officially recognized the Community on more than one occasion and the Supreme Court has upheld that the Choctaw are Sovereign a case of racial discrimination whereby the MOWA Choctaw Chief Framon Weaver hired a Cherokee male in favor over a black minority female and Sovereign Immunity was held to apply to the role of Director of the Alabama Intertribal Council in Taylor v. Alabama Intertribal Council 535 U.S. 1066 (2002).
The Congress of the United also enacted legislation in 2002 to this same effect whereby Congress re-affirmed the Recognition of the Choctaw Nation in 25 U.S.C. 1779 the same year.
That’s the Executive Branch of the Federal Government, the Congressional Branch, and the Judicial Branch.
The Tribe is Federally Recognized and this accounts for the Choctaw Nation of Indians and the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians who just so happen to be defined as the Mississippi Choctaw as determined by the Commission of Indian Affairs during the Choctaw Citizenship Litigation, after the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma split from the Choctaw Nation of Indians are created their own Constitution which severed their own ties to the Choctaw Nation East of the Mississippi, that is, the original Choctaw Nation of Indians.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw chose a similar path in 1945 when they wrote their own exclusive Constitution which also restricted their own citizenship to those residing within the State of Mississippi.
Darby Weaver
The Tribal Leader
Ok – Let me help with some of the questions:
1. The core communities of our families within each of our own communities that are still as has been the case since before the removal period still reside, are born, get baptized, go to school, live, work, play, get married, and take part in community activities some of which are Tribal exclusively in what is presently Mobile and Washington Counties of Alabama.
2. Our families are now exposed to other families nearby who just so happen to have been around mostly from 1803-1807 and by the looks of it are mostly the very same people as well. So that means that in the past couple of decades or more our people have started to marry and interact with our neighboring non-Choctaw/Chickasaw/Cherokee Communities. However, generally speaking we are mostly still where we were during the time each of the Choctaw Treaties were signed since around 1763-1774 or so and the 1785-1866 Treaty Era with the United States.
Thanks
Darby Weaver
The Tribal
Laura Byrd – This was my father’s mother’s grandmother. Mrs Causey has her described as French-Creek Indian descent. However, Laura Frances Murphy, the author quoted almost exclusively in this article, has her listed as “Aunt Laura Byrd, one of the oldest members of Byrd Chapel. She learned to write at the age of 72. She is of French-Cherokee-English descent.
However, while a tomato can be pronounced toe-ma-toe as well – when it comes to tribal affiliations and nationalities – a lot of people have our history and nationality not quite right.
We are documented and quite well, to a degree most other tribes are not. We were described as non-documented simply on the basis as Laura Frances Murphy mentioned that many of our people could not read or write at the time.
The last native speakers who died spoke “Choctaw” or what they called “Choctaw” before each died.
The Tribe is Choctaw, not Creek and not Cherokee, however it is well documented how we came to be associated with each tribal classification. Very well documented by the most authoritative of sources, to be discussed at a later time.
Just taking a moment to clarify the points – Laura Frances Murphy did a nice job in various published works of describing our little community.
While it is interesting to some, it is home to us and our families.
Some people now want to try and dig up our graves to better understand us… and we are still here.